cordon
noun
[ ˈkɔːd(ə)n ]
• a line or circle of police, soldiers, or guards preventing access to or from an area or building.
• "the crowd was halted in front of the police cordon"
Similar:
barrier,
line,
column,
row,
file,
ranks,
chain,
ring,
circle,
picket line,
crocodile,
• a fruit tree trained to grow as a single stem.
• a projecting course of brick or stone on the face of a wall.
cordon
verb
• prevent access to or from an area or building by surrounding it with police or other guards.
• "the city centre was cordoned off after fires were discovered in two stores"
Similar:
close off,
seal off,
tape off,
fence off,
rope off,
screen off,
curtain off,
shut off,
partition off,
separate off,
isolate,
segregate,
quarantine,
seal,
close,
shut,
blockade,
enclose,
encircle,
surround,
Origin:
late Middle English (denoting an ornamental braid): from Italian cordone, augmentative of corda, and French cordon, diminutive of corde, both from Latin chorda ‘string, rope’ (see cord). cordon (sense 3 of the noun), the earliest of the current noun senses, dates from the early 18th century.
